Tracing The Lost Heroes Of The Mohawk Squadrons
The Age
Wednesday August 27, 2003
Obituary - FRANK EVELYN ROBINS - COMMUNICATOR AND HISTORIAN - 13-9-1914 - 10-7-2003
Readers of The Age may best remember Frank Robins for his numerous contributions to the letters pages over the years. He wrote on many newsworthy subjects and was held in such affection by some Access Age staff that they visited him after his heart surgery in 1995. But writing letters was just a pastime compared with Frank's real mission in life.
In the 1970s Frank decided to try to find members of the World War II Royal Air Force Mohawk Squadrons who had been stationed in Burma and India between 1942 and 1944. The Curtiss Mohawks were American-built, single radial-engine fighters whose pilots flew solo over the north-west rivers and jungles of Burma. Although the British commissioned only 80 for that purpose, they became integral to the defence of India as the Japanese army advanced through South-East Asia. At one point there were only eight Mohawks defending the whole of north-east India.
Three RAF Squadrons made up the 900-member contingent - numbers 5, 146 and 155 - and the young pilots from England, New Zealand, Canada and Australia demonstrated amazing bravery and skill using machineguns and bombs to halt Japanese troops and cargo forging along rivers towards India. The monsoonal conditions were hazardous and the camouflaged Mohawks, if shot down, were impossible to locate in the jungle. Many pilots lost their lives.
Frank was NCO in charge of the headquarters orderly room during that time and became renowned for his meticulous keeping of squadron records - of personnel, aircraft, technical equipment and air operations, so much so that he was later mentioned in dispatches for his services to the RAF documents section.
The Mohawk bases in India were at Agartala, Tezpur, Ramu, Risalpur, Dinjan and Imphal.
Frank was first with No. 5 Squadron at Risalpur (and later No. 146 Squadron) and moved with the Mohawks during re-equipment to various other bases as senior NCO in charge of records.
The contribution of the Mohawk squadrons to the war effort largely went unrecognised after the war. Frank decided this wasn't on and began writing hundreds of letters and encouraged press interest. To trigger his recall of names, he pored over the Melbourne telephone directory. Meanwhile he began liaising with Canadian Gerry Beauchamp, who was writing Mohawks over Burma (published in 1985).
The two men co-founded the Men of the Mohawks Squadrons Association (MOMS) in 1982 with a membership of about 250.
Frank initiated, then published, MOMS WORDS (a quarterly newsletter), to MOMS members for 20 years. More recently, MOMS WORDS has been incorporated into the Five Squadron Times newsletter that is now sent to members around the world.
Frank was honorary secretary for 12 years and recently elected president. It is believed membership of MOMS is down to 133, with most of the remaining members now in their late 80s. Through Frank's efforts, history has been recorded.
Frank Evelyn Robins was born in Middlesex to Frank Evelyn Foskett and Alice Mary Robins in September 1914. His father left Alice before he was born and as she needed to work, Frank was given into the charge of a nanny - Emma Louisa Clanfield - a kindly woman who cared for children for a shilling a day. He was later told his father had died in World War I.
Alice visited as often as she could but died from cancer when Frank was only 10. He attended the London County Council elementary school at Earlsfield where he did well at composition, reading and writing, but left at 14 to find odd jobs. He remained with his loved nanny until, at 23, he joined the Royal Air Force.
In 1939 Frank met staff nurse Iris May Rodgers who was employed at St Bernard's Hospital outside London. They became engaged in December 1939, one week before he received orders to leave for India's North-West Frontier. Their marriage was destined to wait for four years. Two years after the pair's engagement, in October 1941, Frank was drafted to the South-East Asia Command, first with 146 Fighter Squadron RAF and then, in May 1942, to No. 5 Squadron.
When he returned to England he married Iris and they had two daughters - Linda and Sylvia. When he was discharged in 1946, he had given eight years of his life to war service. Frank then worked for the British Colonial Office before the family migrated to Australia in 1951. He was 37.
After arriving in Australia, Frank initially was employed by the Preston and then Melbourne city councils. He then ran two mixed businesses before returning to clerical duties at various government departments.
Following Iris's death in 1978, he retired and shortly afterwards befriended a neighbour, Nancy McKenna, who had also lost her partner. Nancy and Frank married in 1980.
Despite a difficult childhood spent without natural parents or siblings - Frank didn't dwell on the past, but became a volunteer par excellence.
He took on counselling of difficult cases in the corrections office with the Justice Department for five years, became a councillor of the Save the Flag Association and a volunteer for the International Diabetes Institute and the Arthritis Foundation.
He painted his local church, became a member of Neighbourhood Watch and a volunteer for Meals on Wheels for 10 years.
Frank's wife, Nancy, and daughters to wife Iris - Linda and Sylvia - and granddaughters Naomi and Belinda, as well as stepdaughters Rosalie and Marillam, survive him.
Susan Hudson is a Melbourne writer.
© 2003 The Age